Brush manufacturing method and brush

ABSTRACT

A plurality of bristle and core wire combination bodies each comprising a bristle of resilient wire formed into the shape of coil and a core wire of metal passed through the loops of the bristle are formed. The same number of other core wires of metal as the combination bodies are prepared. A core wire assembly is formed by twisting alternately the core wires of said combination bodies and the other core wires. A twisted wire body is formed by twisting the core wire assembly continuously in the longitudinal direction, in which a large number of loops of the bristles are arranged in a spiral shape in the longitudinal direction along the twist of the core wires. A plurality of rows of spiral brush bristles are formed by cutting the loops of the bristles of the twisted wire body.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a brush having a row of brush bristles arranged, between a plurality of metal core wires twisted continuously in the longitudinal direction, in spiral along the twist of the core wires, and a brush manufactured by this method.

BACKGROUND OF THE ART

Conventionally, a brush having brush bristles held, between twisted metal core wires, in spiral along the twist of the core wires, is used for the various purposes such as industrial, medical, and noncommercial uses. Brushes of this type, although the size thereof vary from 1 mm or less to 100 mm or more depending on the applications, are both manufactured in the similar way.

The Patent Document 1 discloses a method for manufacturing a brush for polishing the inner periphery end surface of a magnetic disk substrate wherein the brush bristles thereof are arranged in double spiral (see FIG. 2B). This polishing brush is constituted by sandwiching bristles between core wires at two different positions of the four core wires followed by twisting these core wires together. This brush has double spiral row of bristles, and is called a “double spiral brush”.

On the other hand, the Patent Document 2 discloses a torsion brush manufactured by passing core wires through two cylindrical coils respectively, and adding torsion to the core wires. Further, the Patent Document 3 discloses a method for manufacturing a mascara brush comprising, inserting a shaft member to each of two to four spirally wounded fibers which becoming brush bristles, twisting the shaft members to form a brush axis, to thereby arranging a large number of fiber loops in spiral form around the brush axis and forming a spiral groove between the rows of adjacent loops (see FIG. 14).

PRIOR ART DOCUMENT Patent Document

-   Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No, 2006-15450 -   Patent document 2: Utility Model Registration No. 3009324 Gazette -   Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Publication No, 2006-262984

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Problem to be Solved

According to the method for manufacturing a brush disclosed in the Paten Document 1, the bristles are required to bend into substantially V-shape in the central portion in accordance with the twist of the core wires. However, depending on the application, when the bristles with more rigid are employed, the bristles may not bend by simply twisting the core wires, and in this case, the twist of the core wires inflating unevenly, so that it is not possible to arrange the row of bristles orderly in spiral. Therefore, such work is necessary as to apply a twist to the core wires while bending the bristles to bring into close contact between the core wires by applying a strong force to the two core wires located in the center of the bristles. There is a problem that this operation requires skill and is an inefficient work.

According to the methods for manufacturing a brush disclosed in the Patent Documents 2 and 3, since the fibers of the spiral brush bristles are in direct contact when twisting the core wires, the other loop penetrates irregularly each other between adjacent loops so that array of the spiral becomes irregular. This phenomenon is remarkable when the thickness of the brush bristles is different and when the spirals are not in close contact. Uniform arrangement is not obtained when using brush bristles of different fibers in material.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a brush efficiently and without skill wherein the brush comprising loop-shaped brush bristles or radially extended curved brush bristles forming a plurality of spiral rows around core wires.

Means for Solving the Problems

Hereinafter, although the description is made with reference to the signs of the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to thereto.

For solving the above problems, a method for manufacturing a brush according to the present invention comprises the steps of: forming a plurality of bristle and core wire combination bodies 7 each comprising a bristle 6 of resilient wire formed into the shape of coil and a core wire 2 of metal passed through the loops of the bristle 6; preparing the same number of other core wires 3 of metal (other metal core wires) as the combination bodies 7; forming a core wire assembly 8 by approaching the core wires 2 of the combination bodies 7 and the other core wires 3 and placing in the direction of rotation of twisting alternately; and twisting the core wire assembly 8 continuously in the longitudinal direction, to thereby form a brush having a number of loops 9 of the bristles arranged in spiral in the longitudinal direction along the twist of the core wires 2, 3.

According to another method for manufacturing a brush of the present invention comprises additional step of cutting the loop 9 of the bristles 6 after said entire steps to thereby form a brush having brush bristles extending radially curbed in substantially perpendicular direction with respect to the core wires.

Effect of the Invention

According to the method of the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a brush comprising loop-shaped brush bristles arranged orderly to form a plurality of spiral rows around core wires, without skill and efficiently.

According to the another method of the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a brush comprising radially extended curved brush bristles arranged orderly to form a plurality of spiral rows around core wires, without skill and efficiently

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 (A) is a front view, and (B) is a plan view of a brush according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 (A) is a front view, and (B) is a plan view showing the manufacturing process of the brush of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 (A) is a front view, and (B) is a plan view showing the manufacturing process of the brush of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 (A) is a front view, and (B) is a plan view showing the manufacturing process of the brush of FIG. 1 or finished body of other brush.

FIG. 5 A plan view showing the manufacturing process of yet another brush or finished body of the yet another brush.

MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a brush 1 comprises a shaft 4 having four metal core wires 2, 2, 3, 3 which are continuously twisted in the longitudinal direction, and rows of brush bristles 5 arranged in spiral and held to the shaft 4. The brush bristles 5 extend to be curved in a direction substantially perpendicular to the core wires 2, 3 and are arranged in spiral along the twist of the core wires 2, 3 at each between the core wire 2 and the core wire 3. The rows of brush bristles 5 are arranged to form a double spiral around the core wires 2, 3. As shown in FIG. 1(B), each of the brush bristles 5 is pressed at central portion by the core wire 2, and is sandwiched between the other two core wires 3 adjacent to both sides of the core wire 2. Therefore, the core wire 3 is interposed between each spiral row of the brush bristles 5.

The manufacturing process of this brush is shown in FIGS. 2 to 4. In FIG. 2, the core wire 2 of metal is inserted into each of two loops of bristles 6 to form two bristle and core wire combination bodies 7, wherein the bristles 6 are made by forming an resilient wire into coil shape and is used as the brush bristles 5. On the other hand, two other core wires 3 of metal are prepared. The bristle 6 may be either a single wire or a twisted wire.

In FIG. 3, the core wire 2 of the combination body 7 and the other core wire 3 are approached, and as shown in FIG. 3 (B), alternately arranged in the rotation direction of the twisting, and bundled together to form a core wire assembly 8.

In FIG. 4, by twisting the core wire assembly 8 continuously in the longitudinal direction, a large number of loops 9 of the bristles 6 are arranged in a spiral shape in the longitudinal direction along the twist of the core wires 2, 3 to form a twisted wire body 10. This twisted wire body 10 constitutes a brush as one embodiment of the present invention. This brush has a series of brush bristles in loop. Since brush bristles will not fall out from the core wire, this brush is suitable for cleaning of machinery and equipment and the like that dislike the contamination in the cleaning process.

Subsequently, by cutting the loops 9 of the bristles in the twisted wire body 10 along the line C in FIG. 4, the brush 1 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is formed. This brush 1 has two rows of spiral brush bristles 5 extending substantially radially around the axis 4. The brush bristles 5 are curved substantially in an arc shape. Incidentally, if necessary, bristles may be straight by performing heat treatment or the like to correct the curvature.

Since the bristles 6 are a series up to the step of forming a twisted wire body 10, the handling thereof is easy. Since the bristles 6 are pre-curved in the direction to be refracted, they are easily refracted by the pressure due to the twist between the core wires 2 and 3. Therefore, such brush 1 can be easily manufactured as the twist of the core wires 2, 3 is uniform and a row of the brush bristles are arranged orderly in spiral.

A manufacturing process of the brush according to another embodiment is shown in FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, three bristle and core wire combination bodies 7 and three core wires 3 are prepared. Core wires 2 passed through the coil-shaped bristles 6 and other core wires 3 are approached and arranged alternately in the rotational direction of the twisting, and the core wires 2, 3 are twisted together. Thus, a brush with a looped brush bristle rows arranged in triple spiral along the three core wires 2 is formed. Further, by cutting the loops along line C, another brush bristles spreading radially can be formed. By increasing the number of combination body 7 and the core wire 3, it is possible to make the shaft 4 tougher, and the density of the brush bristles 5 can be increased. In each case, by setting the combination body 7 and the core wire 3 in the same number, and by alternately placing the core wire 2 and the core wire 3 in the direction of rotation of the twisting, it is possible to interpose the core wire 3 between each spiral row of brush bristles 5.

Each pair of core wires 2, 3 in FIG. 2 may be made by folding a single metal wire. The core wire 3 may be of larger diameter than the core wire 2. The shape of the loop coils of bristles 6 is not limited to a circle and may be changed variously in shape and size depending on the intended use. For the bristles 6, the different ones of the thickness, material and coil pitch may be mixed. In addition, the coils having different diameters may be overlapped double.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMBERS

-   1 brush -   2 core wire -   3 core wire -   4 shaft -   5 brush bristle -   6 bristle -   7 combination body -   8 core wire assembly -   9 loop -   10 twisted wire body 

1. A method for manufacturing a brush having a plurality of rows of brush bristles arranged, between a plurality of metal core wires twisted continuously in the longitudinal direction, in spiral along the twist of the core wires, characterized in comprising the steps of forming a plurality of bristle and core wire combination bodies each comprising a bristle of resilient wire formed into the shape of coil and a core wire of metal passed through the loops of the bristle; preparing the same number of other core wires of metal as said combination bodies; forming a core wire assembly by approaching the core wires of said combination bodies and said other core wires and placing in the direction of rotation of twisting alternately to thereby isolate the bristles between different combination bodies by the other core wires; and twisting said core wire assembly continuously in the longitudinal direction, to thereby form a brush having a plurality of rows of loop-shaped brush bristles arranged in spiral.
 2. The method for manufacturing a brush according to claim 1, further comprising a step of: cutting the formed loops of said bristles after entire processes claimed in claim 1, to thereby form a brush having brush bristles extending radially curbed in substantially perpendicular direction with respect to the core wire.
 3. The method for manufacturing a brush according to claim 1, wherein said core wire assembly is formed by alternately arranging two said combination bodies and two said other core wires in the direction of rotation of the twisting.
 4. The method for manufacturing a brush according to claim 1, wherein said core wire assembly is formed by alternately arranging three said combination bodies and three said other core wires in the direction of rotation of the twisting.
 5. A brush manufactured by the method according to claim
 1. 6. A brush having a row of brush bristles arranged, between a plurality of core wires of metal twisted continuously in the longitudinal direction, in spiral along the twisting of the core wires, wherein said brush bristles are curved, and extending radially in substantially perpendicular direction with respect to said core wires, wherein, said plurality of core wires of metal comprising the core wires of metal of the bristle and core wire combination body claimed in claim 1, and the same number of other core wires of metal as said core wire. 